New Art Panels by Local Artist TR Miles Unveiled at Skyway Park

Reporting by Cesar Canizales

T.R. (Troy) Miles has been creating art for more than 40 years—and he’s not about to stop any time soon, with projects coming up in several parts of Seattle.

Miles produces public art in the form of murals, but he also creates fine art for galleries.

“This piece, appropriately, is called Sunshine. What's more inspiring than seeing kids, as they say, frolicking in the sunshine? People drive by. People see this--this might be the start of your day. This might be the first thing you see,” said Miles. 

Miles creates “broken glass art,” a combination of abstract and realist art that can sometimes look like shards of glass. He considers himself a “pixel painter” and also calls himself a “digital jazz artist.”

Miles has other pieces of art on display at the Onyx Gallery at Pacific Place in downtown Seattle, including a portrait of Marvin Gaye and another one called “One for the Ages.”

“I love galleries, but … I like to have an opportunity to impact people in ways that words simply can’t,” said Miles “I think in this type of scenario, you have an opportunity to really do some powerful things and to really touch people and to really change people's opinion about certain things.”

Miles’ work is sprinkled around the city, with some of his art at the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic at Othello. He has more art coming up in Columbia City and at Mount Zion Church in the Central District. He says his ideas for individual pieces just come to him.

“I get a certain sense about a design. I get a certain sense about a piece. And I know when I'm on the right track,” said miles.

Miles’ latest works were recently unveiled at Skyway Park, where King County Parks commissioned four art panels, which he created for a multi-sport hockey and basketball court. 

The facility is a partnership between the community, the Seattle Kraken, the One Roof Foundation, and King County Parks. The One Roof Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the Seattle Kraken and provided some of the funds for the park. 

Miles says his inspiration for the park pieces came after he spoke with people in the area and observed the community. 

“What that involved was creating panels to just to honor the neighborhood, honor the natural denizens, the natural landmarks,” Miles said. “What I did was just go around and I had like a photo shoot day where I went and took pictures and kind of interacted with some of the people in the city. It gave me a chance to just kind of reflect on just on the neighborhood.”

Each panel has a little piece of Kraken in it.

De’Aira Anderson, Seattle Kraken spokesperson, says the art fits with the goals of bringing hockey to communities across the region.

“It is really fun just to see sort of the representation of the city in the Skyway area and the Skyway neighborhood and these really fun pieces, but also see some of the Kraken peeking out and seeing some of our players and just the essence of hockey showing that hockey is a community sport and being involved in hockey here in Seattle is something that anyone who wants to can,” said Anderson.

The project at Skyway Park is the result of King County Parks efforts to bring improvements to underserved communities.

“We knew that the Seattle Kraken was thinking about doing something different here and bringing art into the park space. And it's something that King County that we really embrace,” said Warren Jimenez, director King County Parks and Recreation. “You look for those opportunities to bring together not only the idea of what could represent a community here in the park space, but how it can be shown and demonstrated through art.”

Anderson stressed the importance of community involvement for the Kraken.  

“All of this wouldn't happen without our community's support, without our fan support. And we want to make hockey a game that's accessible to everyone, especially young kids who live in areas where they may not normally have access to the sport. So that's why it's super important for us to be here and to show that they can be a part of the Kraken family, the Kraken world, no matter what,” Anderson said.

Mari Horita, executive director of the One Roof Foundation, says one her organization’s main goals is to make hockey accessible for communities around the area. 

“One of the things we wanted to do is reach out into the community and bring hockey to where it isn't. And in fact, one of one of the foundation's pillars is increasing access to hockey for historically underrepresented youth,” said Horita. “So, that includes both creating opportunities at our arena and at our practice facility. But it also means going out into the community.”

Anderson says the Kraken is working on getting a couple more sport facilities and partnering with local area artists.